Seals killed in Blasket Islands

windowgazer

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2004/1105/breaking18.htm
I felt sick when I read this.
60 seals were shot, hit with rocks and had nails driven through their heads in a massive cull by.... people. How can they feel good about themselves each day with the pictures of that in their heads?

Sleipnir

can you post the article for us non-subscribers?

aidan_walsh

Here you go.

Sixty grey seals slaughtered on Blaskets
Last updated: 05-11-04, 12:13

About 60 grey seals have been culled on one of the Blasket Islands off the coast of Co Kerry.

The Irish Seal Sanctuary blamed local fishermen for the slaughter of the seals.

"There's only one direction the finger can be pointed at: the fishing community," said group spokesman Mr Sean Eviston, who travelled to Beginish Island off the coast of the Dingle peninsula to confirm reports of the cull.

Mr Eviston said the grey seals killed were mostly "whitecoats," pups about three weeks old. He said the attackers appeared to have used several methods to kill, including gun shots, beating the animals with rocks, and driving nails into their skulls.

"They ripped some of these seals open from the nape of the neck," he said.

Gardaí are investigating.

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dick Roche, described the slaughter of the seals as "cruel and barbaric". He has sent a department official to the islands to investigate.

"The cruel and barbaric slaughter of these seals has a de-humanising effect on society. The sight of seals being bludgeoned to death is repugnant," mr Roche said.

Fishermen have been blamed for occasional slaughters of seals on the islands that dot the western and southern coasts of Ireland. Nobody has ever faced charges.

Grey seals are supposed to be a protected species under Ireland's Wildlife Act of 1976. Beginish is part of the Blasket Islands, Ireland's largest sanctuary for grey seals. The Irish Seal Sanctuary estimates that fewer than 400 grey seals are resident in the islands, down from about 2,000 a half-century ago.


© 2004 ireland.com

Saruman

Yes post it.. though i have heard that seal culling is leagal to help keep their numbers in any one place down... even still there is no excuse to do it. if there are too many in one place they should just be moved. And rocks??? That i think is or should be illegal.. if you need to cull a species use a gun.. quick and effective but a single rock probably will not kill a seal so thats inhumane....

post the thing up please!!

Oh found something on irish seal sanctuary site
http://www.irishsealsanctuary.ie/html/news/kerry_shootings.htm

Jim

I'd rip the peoples necks out without blinking if I saw them doing that.

windowgazer

OOps, I'm not a subscriber either but I signed up for the free 30 day trial. you can do this until December 24th. Nice!
But anyway, its really sick. Even if culling is legal. They obviously thought the seals weren't worth a humane mode of death and thought they'd do it in a more economic fashion with their bare hands. Imagine the sounds....

Waltons

Ugh, this is really, really horrible. I was completely shocked when I heard this....

mike65

Does make you wonder about some ppl...they're proberly a danger to humans too.

Mike.

bizmark

Ya seen it on the news the people who did it must be a dangour to humans you need to be right off your head to kill 60 seals for no reasion and in the manner that it was done.

Victor

bizmark wrote:

Ya seen it on the news the people who did it must be a dangour to humans you need to be right off your head to kill 60 seals for no reasion and in the manner that it was done.

But they eat fish .....

mike65

Noticed several articles at international level appearing

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1345972,00.html

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041105-063822-4663r.htm

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Environment/Fishermen-blamed-for-seal-pup-slaughter/2004/11/06/1099547417184.html

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/041105/w110558.html

Mike.

goose2005

THEY ARE SEALS. NOT PEOPLE.

There are 27,000,000 slaves in the world. 3,000,000,000 people subsist on less than US$2 a day. 50 nations are ruled by military dictatorships. Every day there are countless cases of ACTUAL HUMAN BEINGS being raped, murdered, beaten, mutilated, abducted and every other horrible thing.

And then there are the animal rights activists, who give more attention to a few hunted foxes or 60 dead seals, than to the limitless human suffering that happens every day, all over the world. The bastards. The ****ing bastards. All of them.

Tommy Vercetti

goose2005 wrote:

THEY ARE SEALS. NOT PEOPLE.

There are 27,000,000 slaves in the world. 3,000,000,000 people subsist on less than US$2 a day. 50 nations are ruled by military dictatorships. Every day there are countless cases of ACTUAL HUMAN BEINGS being raped, murdered, beaten, mutilated, abducted and every other horrible thing.

And then there are the animal rights activists, who give more attention to a few hunted foxes or 60 dead seals, than to the limitless human suffering that happens every day, all over the world. The bastards. The ****ing bastards. All of them.

wah wah wah

Anyway, I read some reports that the seals died from a virus and the supposed mutilation was caused by seagulls. That was a few days after the original reports were out, anyone know if any conclusions have been reached, or would that go against a good paper-seller?

Typedef

"Supposed mutilation"?

Didn't the McMedia, say some of the seals were shot.

Also, goose2005, while I understand the jist of what you say, I think it's farily inconsistent, to berate people who actively oppose cruelity to animals.

Would you rather a situation where there was _no_ movement on animal rights whatever?

If you do feel so strongly about the injustices in the world, you are at your own liberty to go out and _change_ those injustices, but, be warned... while you're working to free Nike's Cambodian swet shop child labourers, somebody, somewhere will be berating you for forgetting about the seals on the Blasket Islands.

Seal1

Hi all,

Just to set some people straight

1. It is illegal to kill seals except under extreme circumstances, under licence, seals both the Grey Seal and the Common Seal (aka Harbour seal) are protected wildlife.

2. To do a cull on any species you first must know the numbers of the species there has been no population survey study of the Grey Seal solely in Ireland, a Survey was carried out between England, Wales, Scotland, Isle of Man, and two places in Ireland in 1990 which showed a population of 125,000 Grey seals and the bulk of that population was in Scotland.

3. In scientific culls carried out in Scotland, and Canada were they did proactive culls (when a seal is seen in an area) it showed there was NO increase in commercial fishstock populations.

4.The seals on Beginish County Kerry DID NOT die of a virus, as postmortem results showed from three random carcasses taken from the Island by Garda's, NPWS, and State Vet showed: (1) died from shooting (2) bludgeoned to death (3) had been hit with force through the eyes with a sharp metal object, a further carcass was taken from the Island and are waiting on the results from that.

Irish Seal Sanctuary Volunteers are not animal extremist, in fact many of the volunteers are from coastal and fishing communties from all around Ireland (some are fishermen themselves). Furthermore regarding the comment made "Seals Are not people!" while I will agree with some of the comments made, yes this world is far from perfect. Just turn on the telly or walk into town!
The Irish Seal Sanctuary has in the past and future worked with Disadantage Children, Disabled People, Outreach Programmes, IWA, plus a lot more.
In doing these type of programmes these people may have never been afforded the chance to see and in some cases work with these animals.

In closing we are an Ireland is an Island Nation, not only must we protect our people but we also must have respect for our wildlife, the two go hand in hand.

why not view the guestbook to have a more global view
www.irishsealsanctuary.ie



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